Maintenance

Transferring data from an old Computer can be a daunting task, especially if the old Computer is not booting up. Most PC retailers would rather not hassle with helping you on something like this, and if they do they want to charge an arm and three legs.

To get your new Computer running similar to your old one, you not only have your data to think about, but all the programs that you once had installed. There is some software on the market that claims to transfer data and installed programs from one computer to another. I would not recommend this due to the fact that when a program is installed it throws files and creates registry entries in many locations. It's nearly impossible to effectively backup a program and move it to another computer.

The best way to go about doing a data transfer is manually installing and configuring the new system with only the programs, drivers and settings that are necessary, and then copying the data to the new system.

Transferring raw data files from one computer to another is fairly easy as long as you know where the data resides on your old computer and where it needs to go in your new computer (which is usually the first stumbling block for non-technical users) Most users have no idea how much personalized data exists on their computer.

Everyone is aware of the their documents, pictures and music but what about your e-mail messages (not just your Inbox), contacts/address book, printer drivers, network settings, network shares, wallpaper and any of the customized settings in just about every program? The best possible solution to make sure that you transfer everything that you care about to your new computer is to take EVERYTHING to your new computer.

In my service process for a new computer, I remove the hard drive from the old computer and attach it as a second hard drive on the new computer and transfer everything from your old data folders into your new data folders, overwriting as I go.

My advice to anyone contemplating the purchase of a new computer that isn’t familiar with all the steps of data transfer is to negotiate the cost of this critical work BEFORE you make the purchase so you aren’t left to figure it all out for yourself AFTER the purchase. My charges for something like this are incredibly reasonable compared to other local establishments.

Back up your data, or otherwise if your hard drive fails there will be no data to transfer.

Thanks for reading my computer repair blog!

For any computer repair service issues, please feel free to come into my shop!

Thanks!

Dog On Fire